


Lost

by VitaLupum



Series: Marble Hornets Kids [1]
Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Childhood, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:56:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VitaLupum/pseuds/VitaLupum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex and Jay explore Rosswood and get lost. Childhood fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

            “ _Ow_!”

            Jay had shouted in pain before he had even hit the ground, little feet tumbling over the stones on the path as if they were boulders, not pebbles. He rolled over, clutching his knee, and as he saw the sticky, red blood come welling to greet the open air, his lip trembled.

            “Jay, are you okay?” Alex stood over him, still wielding the stick he had been chasing Jay with. His eyes blinked curiously behind his new glasses – Jay had asked his mother why  _he_  couldn’t have a pair of glasses as well – as he watched the blood welling up from Jay’s knee.

            “I… I hurt my knee,” Jay whimpered, and blinked back tears. He was seven – darn it, that was almost grown-up, and grown-up boys didn’t cry. The blood began to run down his leg in a knife-thin trickle, and he let out a terrified whimper as it touched his socks and began to stain them.

            Alex knelt beside him, and poked the graze in interest. Jay winced.

            “You’re gonna die,” he announced casually. “Daddy says if you get dirt in cuts you get infected with germs and then they cut your leg off and then you die.” Jay just couldn’t handle the news of his impending demise, and burst into horrified wails that attracted the attention of his mother, who luckily had the kitchen window open.

            “What happened?” she asked as she rushed to Jay’s side, and Alex shrugged.

            “I’unno,” he said shyly. Talking to adults was not his forte. “Jay fell over and now his knee’s all covered in blood. And then he started crying. Like a girl.” Jay glared at Alex and then continued to howl.

            “It’s only a graze, James, darling,” Jay’s mother said. “Come inside, and I’ll get you two a drink and Jay a Band-Aid.” She helped Jay to his feet, and smiled kindly at Alex. “Come on.”

***

            The two boys sat in the kitchen, sipping their orange juice as Jay’s mother bustled around, making lunch. Jay’s knee now sported a garish tiger-print Band-Aid, and he was still hiccupping as he drank. Both boys had been interested to know that you did not in fact die if you got dirt in your wounds, or even if you lost your legs.

            “Hey, boys,” Jay’s father said, waving as he walked inside, and they waved back. “Irene, can I have a word with you?”

            “Sure thing, honey,” Jay’s mother said, and they walked into the tiny utility room at the back of Jay’s kitchen where they always went to discuss things they did not want Jay to overhear. “Jay, you and Alex go back outside, alright?”

            “Sure thing, Mom,” Jay called, and he and Alex walked outside, past Jay’s mother and father, and down the steps into the garden, where they immediately made their way into the crawlspace under Jay’s house, to the vent that led into the utility room. They could hear almost anything in Jay’s house from down there.

            “Irene, they found another kid dead out there,” Jay’s father said flatly, and Jay’s mother gave a horrified gasp. Alex and Jay swapped interested looks.

            “We can’t move, John,” Jay’s mother said in a low voice, and Alex and Jay grasped hands in a moment of terror. Death was still an unclear subject, but moving? That meant not living in the same house and going to a different school and having to make all new friends and never seeing your old ones ever again. “We can’t afford it. And Jay’s settled. If he had to leave Alex and Brian, he’d never forgive us.”

            “Irene, they found the kid in several  _pieces_ ,” Jay’s father said harshly, and Jay and Alex swapped another look.

            “ _Maybe it’s a cereal killer_ ,” Jay mouthed to Alex.

            “I don’t care. As long as we watch him, he’ll be fine,” Jay’s mother said flatly. “People let their kids wander around the woods unattended, that’s why this is happening. Maybe there’s a wild cat up in the woods or something.” There was a slam as Jay’s father walked out of the utility room, and Jay heard his mother sigh as she followed him.

            As the boys extracted themselves from the crawl-space, Jay looked at Alex, and they both turned to look down the street. Jay’s house was on a street that rose gently upwards, near the top, and as they looked downwards they could see the distant line of trees that marked Rosswood Park.

            “Go get your bike,” Jay said excitedly, and Alex nodded. “Tell your mom you’re going to Brian’s, I’ll tell her we’re going to his as well… do we get Brian?”

            “Brian’s mom won’t let him go,” Alex said, shaking his head. “He’s sick.” They swapped a disgusted look, and shuddered. Gross.

***

            “Jay,” Alex whispered, as they wandered into the shade of the enormous trees. “What if we see a wild cat?”

            “Bark. Cats don’t like dogs,” Jay advised him, and they walked forward along the trail.

            “What if it’s a cereal killer?” Alex asked, and Jay shrugged.

            “Daddy said if a man ever asks you to get in his car, you say no nicely and then you go and find your parents,” he said, sifting his limited knowledge for information on the topic.

            “Jay, our parents don’t know we’re here,” Alex said quietly, and Jay nodded.

            “But parents always know where you are. Parents can tell where you are even when you don’t tell them,” he said confidently, and Alex had to agree.

            “Dad said that if you kick men between the legs it really hurts,” Alex told Jay, and Jay furrowed his brow. “On the…  _thing_.” Jay nodded, and they lapsed into cautious silence as they went further into Rosswood.

            They had been walking for fifteen minutes when Jay saw something. It was a person, he was sure, wearing a suit like his dad wore to work, and although he didn’t see its face he saw it was very pale.

            “There!” he shouted, and Alex and he charged forwards, both clutching weapons – Jay held a stick he had found on the ground that was almost as tall as he was, and Alex was clutching a rock so heavy he had to hold it in both hands. How he ran with it was anyone’s guess, but they ran after the figure, that they swore was running at the same speed as them, but seemed to be getting further and further away.

            Finally, Alex had to stop, dropping the rock and falling onto the leaf-strewn ground, panting. Jay stopped as well, and as Alex regained his breath, he looked around.

            “ _Alex_ ,” he whispered, and the horror in his voice was so strong that Alex immediately sat up, staring at him. Jay seemed to have gone whiter than his jumper, and as he took his cap off, lip wobbling again, the only thing that had any colour was the Band-Aid on his knee.

            “What is it?” he asked anxiously, and Jay looked around.

            “I can’t see the trail,” he whimpered, and Alex stood up, looking around. They had left the trail far behind in their excitement, and now they were stood in the middle of the crowded trees, dappled sunlight beating down on their arms, with no way to get home.

            “We’re going to get cereal-murdered,” he said, with more certainty than he had ever had, and Jay began to sob hysterically, sitting on Alex’s rock for moral support. “Jay, don’t sit on that, I need that to stop the cats killing us.”  
  


            “ _Bu-uh-uh-uh-ut we’re going to get ce-ce-cereal muh-huh-hurdered,_ ” Jay wailed shrilly, and Alex clapped his hand over his mouth.

            “If they hear you, you’ll find us,” he said, knowingly, and Jay stared at him. “Now, we have to find water,” he said sternly. “Dad said if you ever get lost in the woods, you find a stream, and you follow it to silly-visation.”

            “Civilization,” Jay corrected him through the sadness. “My daddy has a game called that.”

            “Okay. So, we find water,” Alex said, and pushed Jay off of the rock, picking it up as Jay wailed anew at the fall. “Let’s go!”  
  


***

            A few hours later, and they had not found water, a trail, the figure they had been following, or indeed anyone else. And it was starting to go dark.

            Jay had given up on crying a while ago, and was now sullenly following Alex, who was still carrying the enormous rock. Jay was regretting his entire life choices up to that point, as was Alex, and as they reached the crest of a hill Jay sat down.

            “Nope,” he said, and Alex turned to him.

            “My arms hurt,” he said sadly, and Jay nodded.

            “We’re going to die,” he said morosely. “It was my birthday next month. I was getting an Action Man. And one of those new PlayStations.” He let out a sigh, and Alex gasped.

            “ _Look_!”

            Jay looked, and in the dwindling light, he saw the figure at the foot of the hill. It seemed to beckon to them, and he stood up.

            “He’ll help us,” Alex said, with completely confidence, and Jay nodded. He felt unsure, suddenly – his mother had always told him not to talk to strangers. But then again, she had always told him that adults would  _help_  him if he got lost. This was confusing.

            As they got halfway down the hill, disaster struck – the weight of the rock Alex was carrying pushed him off-momentum, and he tumbled, hitting the bottom of the hill with a snap. He let out a frenzied wail of pain, and Jay gave a cry of horror, running after him. As he leant over him, Alex looked up at him, eyes full of agony.

            “My… glasses broke,” he whispered, but it was clear that was not the problem. His ankle lay at an angle that made Jay’s stomach flip, and as he touched it gently Alex let out another scream.

            “You’ve broken your ankle,” Jay said in horror. How would they walk back now? They were stuck, in the middle of the woods, and there was nobody-

            He looked up, and the figure stood at the edge of the clearing, next to the entrance of a round tunnel that seemed to lead into nowhere.

            “Help?” he asked, and the figure stayed still. “Please help us.”

             _you’re very_

_brave_

_to be out here alone_

            The hairs rose on the back of Jay’s neck – that voice had sounded… off.

             _come with me_

“Daddy taught me not to go anywhere with strangers,” he whispered, and the figure stepped forward. He gasped, and stood over Alex, who lay on the floor, staring at the person.

            It had no  _face_.

             _clever boy_

“Go away,” he said, defiantly, and brandished the stick with shaking hands. The figure laughed, a sound that had nothing to do with humour in the slightest.

             _brave as well_

_but you are so small_

            “Don’t care,” Jay said, voice weak and frightened, and Alex grabbed his ankles.

            “ _Kick him in the thing_ ,” he hissed.

            The figure took another step forward, and black shadowy  _tentacles_ began to unwind from behind it as Jay and Alex stared in abject terror.

             _it is useless_

_to resist_

_time to leave, little ones_

Jay swung at a tentacle, and it plucked the stick from his hands, snapping it before snatching him up.

             _i didn’t say_

             _time to play_

Jay heard Alex give a scream of agony and terror as the creature grasped him as well, and as it brought him to where its face should’ve been, he stared at it in horror, before kicking it squarely in between the legs. It had no discernible effect…

            But then it dropped him, laughing once more, and Jay heard as Alex hit the ground as well.

             _you **are**  brave_

_i have a use for you_

Jay fainted.

***

            Jay’s father, mother, Alex’s parents, and the majority of their street found the boys asleep, or perhaps unconscious, next to the gates of Rosswood. They had woken up sleepy and disorientated, with no memory of the events past their entry of the woods, and after several hours of questioning and a trip to the hospital, where Alex’s leg was put in a cast, they were given back to the care of their parents, who alternated between rage-filled admonishment and loving, tearful embraces.

            “I wonder what happened?” Jay said idly the next day, as he doodled on Alex’s leg cast, and Alex shrugged, staring at the park in the distance.

            “I don’t know,” he mumbled, “but let’s never go there again.”


End file.
